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Abstract:
Abstract: Declarative memory is usually better for emotional
stimuli than for nonemotional stimuli. The amygdala has been
critically implicated in this emotional memory effect. Here we
examined whether the emotional memory effect was normal in DBB, a
33-year old male with bilateral damage to the amgydala following
bilateral amygdalotomy. Memory was tested with three tasks: memory
for an emotionally arousing illustrated story, recall of positive,
negative, and neutral photographs, and recall of neutral vs.
"taboo" words. Physiological and subjective responses to the memory
stimuli were recorded during encoding. In all three tasks, DBB
showed reduced or absent emotional memory enhancement effects. In
contrast, DBB showed clear evidence of stimulus-appropriate
emotional responses, particularly in the emotional story task.
These findings are consistent with an earlier report of two
patients with bilateral amygdala damage due to Urbach-Wiethe
disease, who also failed to show emotional enhancement of memory in
the story task. The present results extend these findings by
showing that this memory impairment is not due to a lack of
physiological responses to emotional stimuli. In addition, they
suggest that the emotional memory impairment following amygdala
lesions extends to both positive and negative emotional picture
stimuli and to memory for verbal stimuli.
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